FIRST PLACE FOR KMPT AT NATIONAL QUALITY IMPROVEMENT EVENT
Date added: 06 December 2023
A quality improvement (QI) project undertaken by colleagues in North Kent won first place at a prestigious event last week.
The team ranked top at The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Annual National Quality Improvement Conference, held on 28 November 2023, for their work to improve patient flow, reduce waiting lists and manage demand for community services.
They were commended for their inclusivity, flexibility and openness to test new ideas to reform ways of working and so enhance the experience of Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust’s service users.
The Dartford, Gravesend and Swanley Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) demonstrated to conference attendees how they had worked together to create a process to enhance the access, care and experience of service users and carers, whilst also advancing the practice of the trust’s workforce. The team went through various iterations of testing ideas with the aim of offering the best experience to patients, carers and other partners, and will continue to refine their work throughout the full life cycle of the project.
KMPT’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Koravangattu Valsraj, who led the trust’s working party, said: “To be championed by such a significant QI partner is testament to the commitment and talent of our project research group. Following QI practice and methodologies gave us the freedom to think outside the box, and the honesty and integrity shown by my team has meant we can manage challenges together.
“By working alongside each other, our clinical, administration, quality improvement and performance teams have shared knowledge and experience to deliver a method that can ultimately benefit the people we care for, and I am extremely proud of their efforts.”
Dr Valsraj’s team were commended on their interdisciplinary skill set and confidence to question existing procedures and standard metrics, while setting realistic and sustainable goals that considered the complexity of mental health care.
The programme, which supports contributors to measure and make changes using the same methodology as the national QI collaboratives, is run by The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) and will continue until summer 2024. Teams will now spend time testing ideas and embedding changes as well as coming together to share ideas and take inspiration from each other.
For the trust’s delegates, this means continuing to modify the correlation between demand and capacity to strengthen the planned pathway of care for service users and sharing learning with the wider KMPT team.
